NATURAL HISTORY. 145 



caress each other with their feelers, and make 

 up the difficulty at once. 



"Are you tired, boys, or do you wish to 

 hear more ?" 



" Oh, let us hear more, by all means : we 

 are not at all tired." 



" I will then tell you of another kind of 

 ants called legionary ants, and sometimes 

 amazons; but I am sorry to say that they 

 are unlike other ants, for they are lazy ; and 

 yet they live very comfortably." 



"How is that, Uncle Philip? Can they 

 be comfortable without working ?" 



" Yes, boys, if they can get others to work 

 for them ; and these have their work mostly 

 done by their slaves." 



" By their slaves ! what are their slaves, and 

 where did they get them ?" 



" As to your first question, boys, their slaves 

 are ants of another kind ; as to the second 

 question where they get them they stole 

 them when they were young." 



" Why you surprise us, Uncle Philip." 



" I dare say I do. There are persons much 

 older than you are who have never attended 

 at all to the doings of insects, who would be 

 very much astonished by the history of the 



